Sunday, July 18, 2004

When I write about gerunds and infinitives, I usually use examples that contain one gerund or infinitive.

Examples:

Running is good exercise.
To run was my choice.

However, both gerunds and infinitives can be used with adverbs in prepositional phrases or as objects.

With adverbs:

Gerund: Running slowly is the best can do.
Infinitive: To run slowly will be easier for me.

With prepositional phrases:

Gerund: Running in a race is fun for many people.
Infinitive: To run in a race is better than to sit in front of the tv.

In the textbook, Grammar Sense 3, Susan Kesner Bland points out that although we can use an infinitive as a subject, it not common. Usually, the infinitive is replaced by it as the subject and the infinitive occurs later in the sentence.

Example:

It is easier for me to run slowly.

She further points out that only a few verbs are used after it.They are:

appears

be

cost

look

pay

seem

take

Usually the infinitive is not used immediately after these verbs, but it can be done.